Elizabeth Martha Beckley (c.1846-6 August 1927) was a pioneering British astronomical photographer. She was the daughter of Robert Beckley, a mechanical engineer based at

Kew Observatory The King's Observatory (called for many years the Kew Observatory) is a Grade I listed building in Richmond, London. Now a private dwelling, it formerly housed an astronomical and terrestrial magnetic observatory founded by King George III. T ...

, who developed the Beckley

rain gauge A rain gauge (also known as udometer, pluvia metior, pluviometer, ombrometer, and hyetometer) is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a predefined area, over a period o ...

and the Robinson-Beckley

anemometer In meteorology, an anemometer () is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common instrument used in weather stations. The earliest known description of an anemometer was by Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti ( ...

with

Thomas Romney Robinson John Thomas Romney Robinson FRS FRSE (23 April 1792 – 28 February 1882), usually referred to as Thomas Romney Robinson, was a 19th-century Irish astronomer and physicist. He was the longtime director of the Armagh Astronomical Observatory, ...

. Beckley worked at Kew Observatory from 1854 while still a young girl, where she was one of the first women to work at an astronomical observatory.Ptolemy, Photography and Pyjamas. Science Museum website.
/ref> She photographed the sun in the 1860s and 1870s using a

photoheliograph A solar telescope is a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun. Solar telescopes usually detect light with wavelengths in, or not far outside, the visible spectrum. Obsolete names for Sun telescopes include heliograph and photoheliograph ...

. Beckley married fellow Kew Observatory employee George Mathews Whipple (15 September 1842-8 February 1893) in 1870. They had five sons. The eldest was Robert Whipple, who was a scientific instrument collector, and founded the

Whipple Museum of the History of Science Whipple may refer to: People *Whipple (surname) (including a list of people with the surname) *Whip Jones (1909–2001), American ski industry pioneer, founder, developer and original operator of the Aspen Highlands ski area in Aspen, Colorado * W ...

in Cambridge. While another was Francis Whipple, who was superintendent at Kew Observatory from 1925 to 1939. Entry of Francis John Welsh Whipple.

References

1840s births 1927 deaths 19th-century British astronomers Women astronomers {{UK-photographer-stub